A sharpest spike in the mobile phone retail prices have been witnessed by India globally with average prices in 2026 going up by 21 per cent over last year so far, according to research undertaken globally by Counterpoint Research.
The spike in the mobile phone prices is due to the impact of rising memory prices, it said.
It is far higher than the global increase in mobile retail prices, which has been pegged at 15 per cent in the same period.
Key mobile companies spike prices:
In a month, Realme has reportedly raised prices by Rs 1,000-4,000 across several models, Oppo has increased prices by up to Rs 5,000 on select Reno and A-series phones, while Vivo has raised prices by Rs 500-4,000 on multiple models in some regions.
Further, the leading brand in smartphones, Samsung, has hiked prices on select S-series, M-series and F-series phones.
One variant of the Galaxy S25 is now Rs 12,000 more expensive.
Another leading brand in India, OnePlus has also increased prices of select smartphones by Rs 2,000-4,000.
What is leading to the spike?
The report cited that one of the reasons for the sharper rise is as much as 51 per cent of the Indian mobile market is in the low- and mid-end segments, with mobile phone prices below Rs 20,000.
Even the percentage increase is much higher on lower-end phones compared to premium phones, which are in the over-Rs 30,000 range, where the increase is lower. Also, the possibility for OEMs to absorb some part of the cost increase is limited on lower-end phones compared to high-end and premium phones.
Phones with higher premium mix and where phones are bundled by operators have seen a much more moderate percentage increase in prices.
These include China, where prices are up 10 per cent, Europe by only 7 per cent, and the US by only 5 per cent. In contrast, markets like Asia-Pacific saw a 19 per cent increase in prices, followed by 18 per cent in the Middle East and African markets. Latin America saw a much slower increase in prices, which went up by 16 per cent, the report said.